The “Politics of the Mirror”: On Geography and Afro-Pessimism

Colonized Curriculum

“…Textbooks subject Africa, constituted primarily as sub-Saharan and dissociated from North Africa, to its own form of Orientalism using a singular narrative of the continent and its people as essentially and inherently inferior to white Europeans (Said 1979). Like global discourses of Africa, these textbooks rhetorically marginalize and subjugate people in “underdeveloped” nations using discourses, rooted in colonialist ideologies, that perpetuate global historical conceptions in Western terms, with all other nations needing to catch up to their technology, knowledges, and modernity (Escobar 2012; Popke 2001).…”

“…Continued reliance on NGOs leaves the West’s moral and political superiority unchallenged while reifying hierarchical power relations (Bond 2000; Ferguson 1994; Jordan and van Tuijl 2007; Shivji 2006). Media and political discourses, by defining Africans by what they are not, provide the rationale for the West’s control, violent erasure, and corporate intrusion (Esteva 1992; Popke 2001).…”

“…Constructing a white, Western, civilized, Christian identity in opposition to dark-skinned Africans, believed to be uncivilized barbarians incapable of rational thought, produced Eurocentric ideologies necessary to exploit African people and resources, expand European empires, and subjugate, enslave, and massacre Africans and their descendants during the era of colonial expansion (Colchester 1993; Gordon 2006; Magubane 2004; Rodney 2011). These ideologies continue to shape conceptions of Africans internationally, as they linger in popular, political, and media discourse within individual nations (Esteva 1992; Manzo 2006; Popke 2001). But where are these discourses learned?…”

“… 4. Although constructed as outside the global economic system, African peoples’ and communities’ participation in the secondary economy represents a critique of Western capitalism (Popke 2001). …”

O fardo holandês: escravidão, África e imigrantes nos livros de história da escola primária na Holanda

“…Os livros-texto raramente abordam "escravidão, conquista violenta ou explorações neocoloniais das regiões do Terceiro Mundo", em vez disso, perpetuam o mito de que os europeus levaram (e continuam levando) a "civilização aos bárbaros em países de Terceiro Mundo" (Marmer et al, 2010;Dijk, 1993, p. 204). Análises da África contemporânea continuam esses discursos ao destacar implícita e explicitamente a "alteridade" dos africanos através de representações suas como atrasados, selvagens, preguiçosos, violentos, primitivos, exóticos, nus, subdesenvolvidos, delinquentes e drogados (Marmer et al, 2010;Manzo, 2006;Myers, 2001;Popke, 2001;Dijk, 1993). Livros didáticos holandeses reproduzem essas opiniões enfatizando o papel político, econômico e cultural dos holandeses no mundo, particularmente sua superioridade e tutela em relação a questões sociais (Frijhoff, 2010).…”